Tropical Journal of Medicine and Dental Practice
ISSN: 2756-4908 (print);  2756-4894 (electronic)
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Guidelines for Authors

Type of manuscript

This is an international Open Access journal devoted to the promotion of pharmaceutical sciences and related disciplines (including biotechnology, cell and molecular biology, drug utilization including adverse drug events, medical and other life sciences, and related engineering fields). It seeks particularly (but not exclusively) to encourage pharmaceutical and allied research of tropical relevance and to foster multidisciplinary research and collaboration among scientists, the pharmaceutical industry and the healthcare professionals. It also provides an international forum for the communication and evaluation of data, methods and findings in pharmaceutical sciences and related disciplines. Although primarily devoted to original research papers, the journal welcomes reviews on current topics of special interest and relevance.

All manuscripts are subject to rapid peer review. Those of high quality (not previously published and not under consideration for publication in another journal) are published without delay.

The maximum length of manuscripts should be 6000 words (24 double-spaced typewritten pages) for review, 4000 words (18 pages) for research articles, 1,500 (6 pages) for technical notes, commentaries and short communications.

The following types of manuscripts will not be considered for publication:

  • Studies on the agent responsible for the activity has not been properly identified in the study.
  • Manuscripts with plagiarirm more than 25% - our prefered software for plagiarism check is www.turnitin.com.
  • Manuscripts already accepted/published, largely similar to already accepted/published or being considered for publication elsewhere.
  • Manuscript outside the our journal scope or previously rejected by this journal but modified for resubmission or simultaneously being considered by another or other journals .

Submission of Manuscript

All manuscripts must be in English and should be submitted in MS Word format via our online manuscript submission platform. The e-mail addresses (and telephone numbers) of all authors must be provided. Illustrations (figures) should be in computer format. Images for any manuscript should not exceed 200 kilobytes unless prior authorization is received from the editor-in-chief. Authors may submit the names, affiliations and addresses (including e-mail) of expert reviewers or those they do not want to review their papers. Thus, the coresponding author is required to include the following statement in the Comments to the Editor:

"I confirm that this manuscript being submitted has not been previously published, and is not under consideration for publication elsewhere."

This journal subscribes to 'Standards for Authors available at http://publicationethics.org/international-standards-editors-and-authors or http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3021155

For editors and reviewers to accurately evaluate the work presented in your manuscript, you need to ensure the English language is of sufficient quality to be understood. It is strongly advices that authors should thoroughly read through the document on how to present a manuscript available at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3626472/. If you need help with writing in English you should consider reading the article available under English language tutorial which covers the common mistakes when writing in English. Authors who wish to have their manuscripts reviewed by a company that specializes in medical editing and proofreading prior to journal submission, may send their documents to Medscience Editors (http://www.medscienceeditors.com) or BioScience Writers (www.biosciencewriters.com) for fast personalized editing services. Please note that the use of a language editing service is not a requirement for publication in this journal and is not a guarantee that the article will be selected for peer review or accepted for publication.

Ethical Matters

Authors using experimental animals and human subjects in their investigation must seek approval from the appropriate Ethical Committee in accordance with "Principles of Laboratory Animal Care" (NIH publication no. 85-23, revised 1985) and/or the declaration of Helsinki promulgated in 1964 as amended in 1996. The method section must include a statement to prove that the investigation was approved and that informed consent was obtained.

Manuscript Format

The language of the journal is English. Each manuscript should be typed double-spaced on A4 (8.5" x 11") paper size with 1 inch margins. It should be arranged in the following order:

Title Page

The title page should:
  • present a title that includes, if appropriate, the study design e.g.:"Ake versus Bode in the treatment of Coco: a randomized controlled trial", "A is a risk factor for B: a case control study", "What is the impact of factor JK on subject IL: A systematic review"
  • or for non-clinical or non-research studies, a description of what the article reports
  • list the full names (first name, middle names and surname) and indicate the institutional addresses below the names with roman numerals used to identify each authors address.  Such numbers should be in superscript placed at the end of each surname and before each institutional address for each author.
  • indicate the corresponding author with asteric (*). Any of two authors may be used for correspondence. Example:  JO Email: jokan@abc.com or AK Li  Email: akli@cdk.org.

Abstract

The Abstract should not exceed 300 words. Please minimize the use of abbreviations and do not cite references in the abstract. Reports of randomized controlled trials should follow the CONSORT extension for abstracts. The abstract must include the following separate sections:
Introduction: the context (1-2 sentences) and purpose of the study
Methods: how the study was performed, the outcomes measured and statistical tests used
Results: what was found (no discussion)
Conclusion: what is concluded, potential implications and possible policy statement
Trial registration: If your article reports the results of a health care intervention on human participants, it must be registered in an appropriate registry and the registration number and date of registration should be in stated in this section. If it was not registered prospectively (before enrollment of the first participant), you should include the words 'retrospectively registered'. See our editorial policies for more information on trial registration

Keywords: Three to ten keywords representing the main content of the article.

Background

The background section should explain the background to the study, a summary of the existing evidence, highlights of the gap in existing evidence, and why this study was necessary or its contribution to the field. The purpose should be provided in the last paragraph.

Methods

The methods section should include:
  • the design and setting of the study
  • the characteristics of participants (including animals) or description of materials and other instruments/tools such as questionnaire
  • a clear description of all processes, interventions and comparisons.
  • for drugs: generic names should generally be used; when proprietary brands are used in research, the brand names should be included in parentheses
  • the outcomes measured
  • the type of statistical analysis used, including a power calculation if appropriate

Results

This should include the findings of the study including, if appropriate, results of statistical analysis which must be included either in the text or as tables and figures. The results should not be discussed here.

Discussion

In the first paragraph, the key findings should be summarized. In subsequent paragraphs, those key findings should be discussed in context of existing literature evidence. This section should also discuss the implications (clinical, humanistic and or economic) of the findings and highlight limitations of the study.

Conclusions

This should state clearly the main conclusions and provide an explanation of the importance and relevance of the study reported.

List of abbreviations

If abbreviations are used in the text, they should be defined in the text at first use, and a list of the abbreviations should be provided.

Declarations

All manuscripts must contain the following sections under this heading:
  • Ethics approval and consent to participate
  • Consent for publication
  • Availability of data and materials
  • Competing interests
  • Funding
  • Contribution of authors
  • Acknowledgements
  • Authors' information (optional)

The details on the information to be included in these sections are below.

If any of the sections are not relevant to your manuscript, please include the heading and write 'Not applicable' for that section.

Ethics approval and consent to participate

Manuscripts reporting studies involving human participants, human data or human tissue must:
  • include a statement on ethics approval and consent (even where the need for approval was waived)
  • include the name of the ethics committee that approved the study and the committee’s reference number if appropriate

Studies involving animals must include a statement on ethics approval and for experimental studies involving client-owned animals, authors must also include a statement on informed consent from the client or owner. See our editorial policies for more information.

If your manuscript does not report on or involve the use of any animal or human data or tissue, please state “Not applicable” in this section.

Consent for publication If your manuscript contains any individual person’s data in any form (including any individual details, images or videos), consent for publication must be obtained from that person, or in the case of children, their parent or legal guardian. All presentations of case reports must have consent for publication.

You can use your institutional consent form or the one available at consent form as a sample if you prefer. You should not send the form to us on submission, but we may request to see a copy at any stage (including after publication).

See our editorial policies for more information on consent for publication.

If your manuscript does not contain data from any individual person, please state “Not applicable” in this section.

Availability of data and materials

All manuscripts must include an ‘Availability of data and materials’ statement. Data availability statements should include information on where data supporting the results reported in the article can be found including, where applicable, hyperlinks to publicly archived datasets analysed or generated during the study. By data we mean the minimal dataset that would be necessary to interpret, replicate and build upon the findings reported in the article. We recognise it is not always possible to share research data publicly, for instance when individual privacy could be compromised, and in such instances data availability should still be stated in the manuscript along with any conditions for access.

Data availability statements can take one of the following forms (or a combination of more than one if required for multiple datasets):

  • The datasets generated and/or analysed during the current study are available in the [NAME] repository, [PERSISTENT WEB LINK TO DATASETS]
  • The datasets used and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
  • All data generated or analysed during this study are included in this published article [and its supplementary information files].
  • The datasets generated and/or analysed during the current study are not publicly available due [REASON WHY DATA ARE NOT PUBLIC] but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
  • Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no datasets were generated or analysed during the current study.
  • The data that support the findings of this study are available from [third party name] but restrictions apply to the availability of these data, which were used under license for the current study, and so are not publicly available. Data are however available from the authors upon reasonable request and with permission of [third party name].
  • Not applicable. If your manuscript does not contain any data, please state 'Not applicable' in this section.

    More examples of template data availability statements, which include examples of openly available and restricted access datasets, are available at here.

    Competing interests

    Authors must declare any conflict of interest. If there are none, the authors should indicate “No conflict of interest associated with this work”.

    Funding

    All funding sources should be provided as follows: "This work was supported by .......name of funder...... (grant number: ......); .......name of funder...... (grant number: ......)". If no funding was received for the work, "No funding received for this work" should be indicated.

    Contribution of authors

    The authors must declare that they did the work by beginning this section with the following statement, “I(We) declare that this work was done by the author(s) named in this article and all liabilities pertaining to claims relating to the content of this article will be borne by the authors”. In addition, a declaration of the role of each author mentioned in the manuscript should be provided. The author who conceived and designed the study, the person(s) who collected and analysed the data, the person(s) who wrote the manuscript as well as an indication that all authors read and approved the manuscript for publication must be specified. Note: It is assumed by the Publishers of this journal that authors submitted the manuscript on the ground that he/she/they did the work and did not fraudulently obtain the data being presented.

    Acknowledgements

    Authors should acknowledge all those who made contribution to the work who cannot necessarily be included in the list of authors.

    References

    References should be typed single-spaced and numbered consecutively in the order in which they are cited in the text.  Arabic numerals (ENCLOSED IN SQUARED BRACKETS, eg., [1], [1,3,5] or [1-4]) should be used in citing references in the text. The squared brackets MUST NOT be used anywhere else in the text to allow easy xml file coding. Index Medicus Style of abbreviations should be used for journals cited. For correct abbreviations visit http://www.ncbi. nlm.nih.gov/PubMed/jbrowser.html.

    Unpublished work should not be included in the list of references.

  • References should be listed along with their DOIs; where doi is not available, the URLs  for the artcle should be provided. Examples of references cited are as follows:u

    Journal Article

    If there are more than 10 authors, only the first 10 should be listed and the others should be represented with "et al."

    • Murri R, Fantoni M, Borgo CD, Visona R, Barracco A, Zambelli A, Testa L, Orchi N, Tozzi V, Bosco O, Wu AW. Determinants of health-related quality of life in HIV-infected patients. AIDS Care 2003;15:581-590. doi: https://doi.org/10.23456/t814342
    • Hanley C. Metaphysics and innateness: a psychoanalytic perspective. Int J Psychoanal 1988;69(Pt 3):89-99. doi: https://doi.org/10.23456/t814332
    • Danoek K. Skiing in and through the history of medicine. Nord Medicinhist Arsb 1982:86-100  doi: https://doi.org/10.23456/t814345
    • Baumeister AA. Origins and control of stereotyped movements. Monogr Am Assoc Ment Defic 1978;(3):353-384. doi: https://doi.org/10.23456/t8143889
    • Edwards L, Meyskens F, Levine N. Effect of oral isotretinoin on dysplastic nevi. J Am Acad Dermatol 1989 20(2 Pt 1):257-260. doi: https://doi.org/10.23456/t8143428989

    Monograph:

    • Matthews DE, Farewell VT. Using and Understanding Medical Statistics, ed 3, revised. Basel, Karger, 1996. 

    Entire book:

    • Ohlsen, Merle M.; Horne, Arthur M.; Lowe, Charles F. Group counseling. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston; 1988. p. 416.
    • Diener, Hans-Christoph; Wilkinson, Marcia, editors. Drug-induced headache. New York: Springer-Verlag; 1988 p. 173.
    • Anderson, Robert J.; Schrier, Robert W. Acute renal failure. In: Braunswald, Eugene; Isselbacher, Kurt J.; Petersdorf, Robert G., et al., editors. Harrison's principles of internal medicine. 11th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill; 1987. pp. 1149-1155.
     

    Web pages:

    • Hypertension, Dialysis & Clinical Nephrology [homepage on the Internet]. Hinsdale (IL): Medtext, Inc.; c1995-2001 [cited 2001 Mar 8]. Available from: http://www.medtext. com/hdcn.htm [cited 12 Jun 2020]
    • Pennington J. HIV/AIDS in Nigeria, 2007. Available from: http://www.avert.org/aids-nigeria.htm [cited 12 Jun 2020]
    • Medlineplus [Internet]. Bethesda (MD): National Library of Medicine (US). Available from: http://medlineplus.gov [updated 2000 Apr 7; cited 18 Apr 2000].
     

    Dissertation:

    • Bertram, Kenneth. The role of natural killer activity in resistance to herpesvirus-induced disease. [Rochester]: University of Minnesota; 1981 Dec. p.138 [dissertation].
     

    Tables

    Each Table should be inserted at an appropriate position in the text closed to where it was first cited and numbered with arabic numerals using single space to separate the Table and the number (eg, Table 1, Table 2, etc). Where there is more than one Table, each Table should be cited independently (do not refer to more than one Table) in text. The maximum number of Tables allowed in a manuscript is nine (9).

    Each table should be typed using a table format (ie, each variable must be typed into a separate cell in the table) with only horizontal lines above and below the table column headers and at the bottom of the table (using 1 pt for the top and bottom lines and 0.5 point for any middle line). No vertical lines should be included in any table. Each table MUST not exceed 6.5 x 7 inches (16.5 x 17.8 cm, width x height) and MUST be inserted at the appropriate position in the text just below where it was referred to the first time. The title should be typed at the top of the table in the sentence case format, i.e., only the first name should be in capital letters; names should also be in capital letters, as appropriate. Any footnote should be typed at the top and bottom of the table in italic.

    Figures:

    All Figures, Schemes and Illustrations should be be clear and sharp, and labelled as Figures and numbered with arabic numerals using signle space to separate the Figure and the number (eg, Figure 1, Figure 2, etc) and refered to independently (do not refer to more than one figure at the same time) in text. The maximum number of Figures allowed in a paper is nine (9).

    Each figure should be professionally drawn electronically and inserted in the appropriate position where it was first cited within the text. Symbols, lettering, and numbering MUST NOT be in bold print and should be clear and large enough to remain legible (be at least 9 points in size) after the figure has been reduced to 1/2 of the original size. The legend and any footnote for each figure should be typed below the figure.

    Photographs/Figures may be produced in any color. If photographs of patients are used, either the subjects are not identifiable or their pictures must be accompanied by a written permission to use the images.

    Authors should target their Figures to width of 85 mm for half page column. Where this is not possible, width of 170 mm for full page should be considered. Image resolution should not be less than approximately 300 dpi (dots per inch) at the final size.

    Labels of Figures MUST be in text form and MUST not form part of the image.

    Manuscript charges

    There is no charge for submitting a manuscript. But once a manuscript is accepted for publication, the author(s) will be required to pay a publication charge of US$300.00 before the accepted paper is published. Authors may opt for fast-track (accelerated) review and publication which attracts a special publication charge of US$600.00 if the manuscript is accepted for publication. Manuscripts that fall under fast-track option would be published, if accepted for publication, within 4 - 5 months from the time they are sent for review while those on normal track may take much longer period.

    Copyright

    Submission of a manuscript to this journal is an indication that the manuscript has not been published previously and is not under consideration for publication elsewhere. All authors named in each manuscript would be required to sign a copyright form so that they may retain their copyright in the article but to assign to us (the Publishers) and its licensees in perpetuity, in all forms, formats and media (whether known or created in the future) to (i) publish, reproduce, distribute, display and store the contribution, (ii) translate the contribution into other languages, create adaptations, reprints, include within collections and create summaries, extracts and/or abstracts of the contribution, (iii) create any other derivative works(s) based on the contribution, (iv) to exploit all subsidiary rights in the contribution, (v) the inclusion of electronic links from the contribution to third party material where-ever it may be located, and (vi) license any thrid party to do any or all of the above.

    Galley Proofs

    Unless indicated otherwise, galley proofs are sent to the address given for correspondence. It is the responsibility of the corresponding author to ensure that the galley proofs are returned without delay.

    MANUSCRIPT SUBMISSION CHECK-LIST

    Please carefully go through the following check list. Non-compliance with TJPR manuscript formatting requirements will result in the manuscript being returned to the corresponding author for reformatting or rejection.
    • ? Is my manuscript typed double-spaced on A4 (MS Word 2003 or earlier version) including the Abstract and References sections? Note that PDF is not acceptable.
    • ? Are the Title and Abstract each on separate pages?
    • ? Is the Abstract (except for review manuscripts) subdivided into the prescribed subsections of Purpose, Methods, Results and Conclusion, and also within the 250-word limit?
    • ? Is my manuscript within the limit of 4,000 words (approximately 18 pages typed double-spaced on A4) for research papers or 6,000 words (approximately 24 pages typed double-spaced on A4) for review papers?
    • ? Are Results and Discussion separated into two sections of Results and Discussion?
    • ? Is there a Conclusion section?
    • ? Have you provided all the Declarations information required?
    • ? Is the reference numbering style within text co-script with square parenthesis (squared brackets) with the numbers inserted before and not after punctuations?
    • ? Did the References list adhere strictly to this journal format, including the correct punctuations and with space after semi-colon, colon and comma?
    • ? Is the total number of Figures and Tables within the limit of 9 allowed?
    • ? Has color (other than black) been excluded from the manuscript including graphs (except photomicrographs)?
    • ? Is there a legend/caption at the bottom of each Figure and at the top of each Table?
    • ? Have you ensured that when each figure/image is reduced to occupy no more than three-quarters of half of an A4 column in a page, the font size of labels will not be smaller than 9 points?
    • ? Is the symbol key removed from within the Figure (graphs) and integrated neatly within the legend using the Symbol tool under Insert menu of MS Word ? Do not place horizontal strokes across symbols.
    • ? Have borders been removed from around the Figures?
    • ? Are Figures and Tables inserted at appropriate points in the manuscript nearest to where references were made to them?
    • ? Are Figures and Tables refered to independently, ie, you have not refered to more than one Table (eg Tables 1-3) in text?
    • ? Have you read and adhered strctly to our policy statements?

 

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